India had a memorable outing at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, finishing with its best-ever medal tally at the quadrennial event. Seven golds, nine silver medals and 13 bronze medals helped India cross its tally of 19 medals from Tokyo 2020.
Sheetal Devi is the youngest Indian medallist in this edition of Paralympics, while Suhas Yathiraj is the oldest Indian medallist at the Paris Paralympics.
Sheetal Devi
Sheetal became the youngest Indian medallist in the history of Paralympics as she won a bronze medal in the mixed team compound open archery event in Paris.
Sheetal, the armless archer who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, and Rakesh Kumar beat Italy’s Eleonora Sarti and Matteo Bonacina 156-155 in the bronze medal match.
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At the age of 17 years 7 months 23 days, Sheetal is the youngest Indian to win a medal at the quadrennial event. The record previously belonged to Praveen Kumar, who clinched a silver medal in men’s high jump T64 event in Tokyo in 2021 at the age of 18.
Suhas Yathiraj
Suhas won silver in the men’s singles SL4 category after losing to France’s Lucas Mazur 9-21, 13-21 in the ongoing Paralympics at the La Chapelle Arena Court 1 in Paris. He was 41 years old when he won the medal, the oldest Indian medallist in this edition.
Suhas, an IAS officer from Uttar Pradesh, bettered the colour of his medal after he’d lost out to Mazur at Tokyo Paralympics. Suhas, an IAS officer from Uttar Pradesh, must have felt a feeling of deja vu after the result of the Tokyo Paralympics final played out in the French capital. Then too, he’d lost out to the Frenchman to clinch second place.
Suhas had won both his group stage matches with straight-game victories against Indonesia’s Hikmat Ramdani and South Korea’s Hwan Kyung Shin.
In the semifinals, he faced compatriot Kadam. Continuing with his winnings streak, Suhas handed a 2-0 loss to Sukant to enter the finals for a second consecutive Paralympics.
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